Krissa Watry, co-founder of Dynepic, worked as a chief engineer to launch satellites. Sounds like a big deal, and it is, but something made her want to change her career and work in product design. As an entrepreneur, Watry wanted to develop “a consumer product that could change people's lives”. To her, that meant getting into the business that pushed her into engineering. Toys! Now, Dynepic has dubbed its new device, DynePod, as the leader in its “Internet of Toys” (IoToys) platform, where toys meet the digital realm to help enable technical education and learning.

“The emphasis for Dynepic and its IoToys grand plan is squarely on educational play — enabling learning of technology and engineering type skills through kids using physical toys linked to a tablet-based programming interface that lets them configure their function, and even pull content down from the web to extent their play.” - Wearable Technologies

DynePod is a Bluetooth connected, 25-pixel block of LEDs that contain a bunch of sensors inside for detecting movement as well as other DynePods. Alerts are seen on the LED display, or signified by buzzing. DynePods can connect to tablets to make apps, double as a controller to play those apps, be linked up to other DynePods to play games, or linked to cloud services via open APIs.

Watry believes kids are the perfect candidates to try out technology. They possess curiosity while leaving behind the skepticism. Her engineering skill set matches well with her co-founder's background in early years education. A couple years back, the two were lucky enough to receive a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, and $50,000 from the South Carolina Research Association to work on Dynepic. Now, the two are seeking $30,000 on Kickstarter to cover production costs, go from prototype to toy, perform child safety testing, and pass FCC tests (Tech Crunch). DynePod will be the first of many connected toys that the company will develop. It's time for kids to get off their parent's tablets, and into a visual playground where learning and programming meet fun.